Bramdean House

Bramdean House has a delightful private garden which has been on the same axis behind the house on a Hampshire hillside since the 1740s. The present owner’s mother started to replan and replant in the 1940s. This has been continued with delightful effect to the present day by Mrs Wakefield and her two gardeners.

Bramdean House has become well known for its double mirror image herbaceous borders, up the hill on either side of the axis. These are at their best through June and July.
Beyond these borders, two fine wrought iron gates lead away through a walled kitchen garden and then an orchard to a distant focal point at the blue-doored Apple House, with a little clock on top. Espaliered fruit trees serve to separate the axis path through the kitchen garden from the other fruit and vegetables. Spectacular in spring with daffodils and snowdrops, the orchard contains ornamental apples, cherries, plums, a quince and a medlar. The Apple House dates from the early 1800s. Its clock mechanism is contemporary and is in good working order. Espaliered rosemary on the walls adds an unusual touch.

To one side is the greenhouse, mainly used for propagation but also with a collection of tender nerines.

The East Walk takes one back down the hill away from the formal garden among unusual trees, past a thatched summer house and Victorian dog cemetery through a secret pathway to the original wrought iron entrance gates. The imposing front of Bramdean House built in the 1740s by Catherine Venables, is protected from the road by a massive clipped yew hedge.

Bramdean House